Federal prosecutor unveils plan for terror trial

MIKE ROBINSON

Tuesday

Mar 30, 2010 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2010 at 8:36 PM

CHICAGO — Chicago’s top federal prosecutor said Monday he hopes to use classified documents as little as possible at the trial of a businessman charged in connection with the November 2008 terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai and a planned attack in Denmark.

CHICAGO — Chicago’s top federal prosecutor said Monday he hopes to use classified documents as little as possible at the trial of a businessman charged in connection with the November 2008 terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai and a planned attack in Denmark.

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said investigators have gathered "a substantial amount" of classified material on Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who is charged along with an American citizen, David Coleman Headley, and two other men.

Fitzgerald told Judge Harry D. Leinenweber the government hopes to declassify much of the material to avoid extensive use of the complex Classified Information Procedures Act — which governs how courts handle classified evidence.

Rana, 49, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism in India and Denmark and to the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Pure.

Rana, a Canadian national born in Pakistan who has lived in Chicago for more than a dozen years, is accused of allowing Headley to use his business as a cover as he scouted Mumbai before the terrorist attacks that left 166 people dead and hundreds injured.

Both the Indian government and federal prosecutors blame the attacks on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based terrorist group at odds with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Rana also allegedly used his business as cover for Headley’s scouting missions to Denmark, where a newspaper offended Muslims by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Headley, 49, has pleaded guilty to scouting Mumbai and planning an attack on the Danish newspaper. He has pledged to help federal prosecutors in exchange for a promise he will not face the death penalty.

Rana could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

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